button to main menu  Otley's Guide 1823 (5th edn 1834)

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Page 48:-

Skiddaw
SKIDDAW.
  views
A view of the country, from at least one of the eminent mountains of the district, is considered as forming a part of the tour, by those who can muster strength and resolution for the undertaking; and for this purpose Skiddaw is, on several accounts, generally selected. It is nearest to the station at Keswick, most easy of access - as ladies may ride on horseback to the very summit; and standing in some measure detached, the view, especially to the north and west, is less intercepted by other mountains.
  altitude
Skiddaw is the supreme of a group of mountains about thirty miles in circumference; including Saddleback, Carrock, and the Caldbeck fells: its height, according to Colonel Mudge, is 3022 feet above the sea. A mean of seven different trials with the barometer, between the years 1809 and the present time, makes it 2808 feet above Derwent lake; and the result of a geometrical process by the late Mr. Greatorex in 1817, agrees with the same very nearly.
  geology
  botany

The body of the mountain is a rock of dark coloured clay-slate, in some parts of which crystals of chiastolite are found imbedded; and among its vegetable productions are the different species of Lycopodium and Vaccinium, the Calluna vulgaris and Empetrum nigrum; and upon the summit the Salix herbacea peeps forth among the stones.
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